Both England and France have subsidized bread; the Government has set
a price below cost and itself makes up the difference to the baker.
England has appropriated $200,000,000 for the purpose.

Bread rations are in force in both France and Italy. France has
recently put her whole people on a rigorous ration which limits them
to two-thirds of the amount of bread that they have been accustomed
to. Remember that bread is a far more important part of the French
diet than of ours. Even children under three have bread cards allowing
them 31/2 ounces a day. Rations are not a guarantee that the amount
mentioned will be forthcoming; they only permit one to have it if it
can be obtained. One interesting result of the stringency, according
to an American officer writing from Paris, is that guests even at
formal dinners, may be asked to bring their own bread, finding this
postscript on their invitations: "Apportez un peu de pain si vous le
voulez."[1] In Italy the very limited bread rations are fixed locally.

[Footnote 1: "Bring a little bread if you wish it."]

England has compulsory rations for meat and butter or margarine and
sugar, but not for bread. Her bread system is voluntary like ours,
but much more detailed. The voluntary ration allows one-half pound of
bread a day for sedentary and unoccupied women and larger allowances
up to a little over a pound for men doing heavy labor. Waste of any
kind is very heavily punished--one woman was fined $500 for throwing
away stale bread.

"Why not send corn abroad?" One hears the question over and over
again. The answers are many. In the first place, we _are_ sending corn
over--our exports of corn during March, 1918, increased 180 per cent
and of corn meal 383 per cent over the pre-war average. This they
are using as we are using it in our Victory bread. But they must have
enough wheat to make a durable loaf of bread at the bakeshops, where
for generations all the baking has been done. The French housewife
has no facilities for bread-making and the French woman does not know
how and has not the time to learn. She is doing a man's work and her
own woman's labor besides, and the extra unaccustomed labor of
bread-making cannot be added to her burdens.

WHY WE IN THE UNITED STATES DO NOT HAVE BREAD CARDS

Some people, disturbed either selfishly or patriotically by the
failure of a neighbor to conserve wheat, have asked why the Food
Administration trusts to voluntary methods, why